Will: Brad Pitt's jealous of me

The two men voice superhero rivals in forthcoming 3D animation Megamind, with Will being the big-headed blue title character and Brad as his arch nemesis Metro Man.

“Brad and I share a pretty famous rivalry in real life – I think he’s just incredibly jealous of my career and my good looks, and I don’t blame him,” Will joked.

Unlike Brad, who has revealed he did the film for his six children, dad-of-three Will reckons his sons didn’t enter the equation.

“This was more of a right place at the right time kind of moment. I hadn’t done a lot of work in animated movies before and this was a unique opportunity to do a big one,” he continued.

“It’s my first time kind of doing an animated film – I loved the story and loved the cast. It was more that way, even though my kids were excited to see it. They’re still pretty little so it’s one of the first movies that they have seen. They were really conscious that I was doing the voice of Megamind and it was exciting to them, so it was fun.”

Will’s two eldest sons Magnus, six, and Mattias, three, were bemused with their dad’s new role.

“They were confused. They were like, ‘Are you a bad guy? Is that you with the blue head?’ At first I think they didn’t understand it was a cartoon but they really liked it,” he added.